An article in USA Today explores how Verizon, in partnership with LISC, is helping small businesses stay afloat through the continuing challenges of the pandemic. This includes the recent launch of Verizon Small Business Digital Ready, a free learning resource to help entrepreneurs flourish in an increasingly digital economy, and $10 million in Verizon grants that LISC awarded this year to more than 900 small businesses. Most are women- and BIPOC-owned, including the four community-rooted enterprises highlighted in this piece.
The excerpt below was orginally published:
Small businesses succeed despite pandemic closures, reopening challenges
By Stephanie Walden, for Verizon
Photo courtesy Verizon via USA Today
Perhaps the reigning theme for small businesses this past year and a half has been uncertainty – and getting comfortable with it.
Luckily for Kimberly McGlonn, co-founder of Grant BLVD, a Black-owned, women-owned sustainable apparel company based in Philadelphia, being nimble is woven into her company’s DNA. The organization, which aims to use fashion to create space for conversations about climate change and justice reform, was already accustomed to taking a creative approach not only to its products, but to its entire business model.
Still, it was stressful to figure out how to proceed with “business as usual” in the early days of the pandemic – especially since Grant BLVD had just secured its first brick-and-mortar lease. The company originally intended to open the space in March 2020, but ultimately ended up pushing that date by four months.
Despite the hurdles that the pandemic has presented, Grant BLVD has persevered.